Oprah Talks to Jon Stewart

Oprah Winfrey: I've heard a lot of comedians say their humor is born of pain. Do you believe that?

Jon Stewart: If you looked at anybody's life, you could find the pain in it and say that what they do is born of that pain. Everybody's got their shit. I come from a straight-up middle-class existence. It was the seventies—"I'm OK, you're OK"—and we got hit with all of that.

OW: How did that affect you?

JS: Man, I wish I knew. I'm sure I'll find out ten years from now. Someone will spill the gravy, and I'll flip out and start yelling. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is this: I don't think what I went through is any more remarkable than what anybody else goes through. My way of handling it was with humor.

OW: I read that you were teased as a child.

JS: Who wasn't?

Oprah Talks to Jon Stewart / From the June 2005 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine